He's the local radio angel who has won the hearts of countless girls, but will go out with none. She's convinced he's secretly gay, and is trying to hook him up with her flamboyantly gay roommate. This does not necessarily bode well...[COMPLETE!]

So
everyone had their happy endings. My roommate/best friend ended up
with my ex-boyfriend, in a weird twist of fate. My current boyfriend
professed his undying love for me—well, maybe it wasn't quite
like that, but close enough. I had gotten him out of the closet,
which was an amazing accomplishment in itself, one of which I was
very proud.

Ryan had
said to me that he wouldn't say he loved me until Raphael and Lena
got together, but it was more of a joke than anything else. In fact,
right after he said that, he said those three wonderful words—and I
really think he meant it. But it was too good of a statement to let
slide, so I used it against Lena. Yes, I had been trying to
guilt-trip her…and it must have worked, at least in part.

Still,
Ryan was convinced that Raphael was gay. He was very hardheaded in
that sense. So I made Raphael and Lena kiss right in front of Ryan,
as proof. They were reluctant, of course, but they got over their
initial embarrassment—as I'd figured. Unfortunately, that kiss
led to a mini make-out session, even though both Ryan and I kept
reassuring them that that was quite enough proof, hey stop that now,
okay seriously guys, get a room!

Also (a
bonus!), I gained a new friend! Well, two new friends, since
Ana and Grace were practically inseparable. Between the four of us,
we formed what we called the "Gay Mafia," of which I was the
proud "Fairy Godfather." We let Raphael and Lena carry out
missions for us sometimes, out of the goodness of our hearts. Mainly,
we allowed them to get us our food.

It took a
long time, but I finally got Ana to admit that she felt much better
about Raphael's relationship with Lena than his one with Eileen.
But, she warned me (very convincingly, I might add), I mustn't let
them know; she liked Lena to be nervous around her. Gave her a
strange sadistic pleasure to be so intimidating. Oh, well.

And
speaking of Eileen…

Lena had
this great confrontation with her. I mean, it was really
movie-worthy. I know because I was there. And maybe I have a tendency
to overdramatize things, but who's keeping track?

Anyway, so
Lena and I were walking…somewhere, it doesn't really matter. But
Eileen came out of practically nowhere. She might have passed us by,
and Lena might have passed her by, but for some reason they made eye
contact, and Eileen just smiled. It was a sinister, fake smile, quite
worthy of a villainess.

But all
she said to Lena was, "You'll get sick of him soon." And she
kept walking. Well, she would have kept walking, but Lena had
this look on her face—a "don't screw around with me and expect
to walk away unscathed" kind of look. Lena grabbed Eileen's
shoulder and forced her to look at her. Then Lena gave her this big
long angry speech about how Eileen can't mess around in her
life anymore, and I would reprint it, but it was a little too profane
for any kiddies out there who might be reading this.

The gist
of it was: Stay away from me and my boyfriend, you blankety blankin'
blank. Or else you'll regret it.

Eileen
wasn't really scared, but she did seem a little humbled. She just
shook off Lena's death grip with a muttered, "I've better
things to do." A lie, I'm sure.

What
exactly Hammond saw in her would remain a mystery to us all. Then
again, Hammond was a bonehead himself, so it was hard to put yourself
in his shoes.

From what
I heard (which was not very much, since no one really cared anymore),
Eileen and Erik were on and off, hot and cold, for a little while. By
winter break, though, they were over. I think. Pretty sure. Well,
that was when they started dating other people, so I just assumed…

That
wasn't the last we heard from Erik Hammond, though. (After all, he
was Ryan's roommate for the rest of junior year.) Maybe the
break-up between him and Eileen taught him something about himself,
because he wasn't so bad. And eventually Raphael grew to forgive
and tolerate him. It helped when Andy and Pam…

But I'm
getting away from things. That was an entirely different
story.

I can't
say that everyone lived happily ever after. Relationships
aren't all hunky-dory and fine-and-dandy once they get started. But
things in general were good all around for a while. And Ryan and I
already set a date for the wedding.

Hah, just
kidding. Just wanted to see if you were still paying attention. I
mean, we're not in high school anymore, as Lena pointed out. But
we're still just college kids. We party and go crazy and have
flares of drama. We think about our practical futures, what we
want to do with our lives, but not with whom we want to spend
them.

Lena went
abroad to London for her second semester in junior year. Apparently,
she and Raphael missed each other terribly, because they felt
compelled to instant-message and call and text each other every free
second they got. Sheesh. Some couples. They just don't know how to
do it.

See, this
was how Ryan and I were going to handle the whole "study abroad"
thing: first semester of senior year, Ryan was going to Madrid. And I
was going with him.

So
basically we were spending all of second semester in junior year
preparing for that. Which was great, because it meant more
classes together. That conundrum: solved. Oh yeah, we were so totally
professionals at this whole relationship thing.

There's
not really much to say that you probably couldn't infer on your
own. Still, I'll give you Ryan's and my
reflections on the past semester.

"So,
Raphael was never gay?" I asked, feeling a little stab of regret. "That whole relationship with me
was just a hoax?"

"Yeah,
that's good," Ryan said with a sly grin. "Whether he had
homosexual tendencies or not before, he's totally in love with Lena
right now. So it's all good."

"And
Lena actually has blonde moments," I noted.

Ryan
laughed. "Major blonde moments. More like, blonde weeks."

"She
really hated him at first. Or, so she claimed," I recalled.

Ryan
nodded. "I remember that. I think it was 'cause she still thought
of him as the Raphael with Eileen. Even though she felt sorry for him
when the whole fiasco with Eileen and Erik happened, I don't think
she ever got past that first image of him. We—me, Lena, and
Pam—used to have these huge long rants about how stupid and
arrogant Raphael was. I guess that was Lena's way of taking out her
frustration on Eileen, because we never talked about Eileen
when Lena was around. So we beat up on Raph instead." He grinned
and stared wistfully into space. "Them's were the days."

"Well, I
guess when she finally figured out he actually seriously wanted to be
with her, then it clicked," I said with a yawn. "Say,
Ryan…were you jealous of Raph when he was going out with me?" I
gave him a teasing grin.

He shoved
me lightly. "Don't flatter yourself. It isn't becoming."

I snorted,
then sobered up. "Well…you weren't on a rebound, were you? From
Andy?"

"Oh,
sure," he said casually. "But—"

"But
once you started to get to know me, you realized this was so
much better than any girl can offer," I finished for him, smoothing
back my hair and giving him my best winning smile.

He raised
his eyebrows at me while half-smiling. "Took the words right out of
my mouth." He then stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Speaking of
rebounds…"

"Hammond,"
I said, nodding. "Like, whoa."

"I don't
think he even actually liked Lena," remarked Ryan. "I
mean, he wouldn't really talk about her a whole lot—I guess he
generally had a good opinion of her, and he would hang out with us
when she came around…and, boy, he flirted with her like
crazy. Except she never noticed." He grinned. "Blonde moment
again."

"For a
girl with such dark hair, she seems to be having a lot of those," I
remarked.

"God,
what kinda losers are we?" Ryan suddenly said, sitting up
straight. "We're sitting here, talking about all these random
things that happened to all these random people…we're gossiping
like high school girls. What's wrong with us?"

I took his
hand and waggled my eyebrows suggestively. "We don't have
to talk…"

Ryan
laughed and didn't protest.

That
brings me to the end of that transcript. And I'd like to
assure you that Ryan and I don't usually gossip like high
school girls. Only occasionally.

But
anyway: that's our story, and we're stickin' to it. Now I'm
going to have to ask you politely, with the utmost respect and
appreciation for you, to leave us all alone and mind your own
frickin' business. Our stories are, from this point on, exclusively
private. We're closing the dorm doors. And don't ever try to
break into them. (Remember what happened to Raphael!)

So
farewell, and good luck with your own happy endings. They are there,
and they will come, even if they won't always stay, though we
always hope they will.

And the
corniness ends…now. 'Kay bye.

-----

A.N.:
Quick disclaimer: Vassar doesn't have a study abroad program in
London, though it does in Madrid.

I'm
sorry if you found the ending…rather unorthodox. But I thought it
would be most appropriate if Mario did the honors in his own way,
with his own words. :-)

At last I
reach the end of this grand saga…again, my utmost thanks to
everyone who's read this entire big long thing, sticking with me
through the highs and lows, the funnies and the sads, the excitings
and the borings. :-D

I may or
may not write another story. If I do, it won't be a sequel to this
story. Not really, anyway. I want to close the book on main
characters Lena, Raphael, Mario, and Ryan, much as I love them
dearly. And…if I do write another story, I won't start it for a
while. First I have to finish high school for good, so I can close
the book on THAT part of my life. xP

You may
notice "Author Alerts" for On Air in the future; just
ignore them. I'll be going back and revising this story, changing a
few details here and there, but I won't be changing anything major.
This story is, as far as I'm concerned, DONE!

So I bid
all the fans of On Air a final farewell. It's been real, and
it's been fun, and it's certainly been real fun. :-D

Much love
to you all!
--Rhea Larkin

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.